Insider: How Margus Hunt's midseason move to nose tackle is paying off for Colts defense

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Clark Wade, Clark.Wade@Indystar.com

Indianapolis Colts defensive end Margus Hunt (92) pressured Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) to get rid of the ball in the second half of the game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2018. (Photo: Jenna Watson/IndyStar)

A nose tackle should look something like a sumo wrestler — think Vince Wilfork — or at the very least like Damon Harrison, a powerlifter with a spare tire. Hunt is long and lean, as lanky as a man who weighs 300 pounds can possibly be, the weight stretched out over a 6-8 frame that is one of the tallest in the NFL.

But the Colts moved Hunt to the nose during the bye week, and a man who’s spent most of his career at defensive end is thriving at the fulcrum of an Indianapolis front that has been one of the best in football against the run in the second half of the season.

“Margus is a unique nose,” Reich said. “Still gives you that body that has to eat up a lot of blockers and frees other guys up, but yet, he’s a very good inside pass rusher. Usually, for a nose, you don’t get that level of pass rush.”

The Indianapolis coaching staff went a little outside the box by moving Hunt to the nose in the middle of his best season in the NFL.

Hunt opened the season at defensive end, and after five seasons of playing sparingly as a backup and a special teamer, he’d emerged as one of the surprise stories of this Colts defense, racking up four sacks in the first four games. A knee injury slowed him down a little bit after that, but he had clearly become more of a force in the Colts’ 4-3 scheme, a system that asks defensive linemen to do only one thing: get in the backfield and create havoc.

Paradoxically, the success Hunt was having on the edge is what convinced Indianapolis to move him to the middle. With Denico Autry finally healthy and Tyquan Lewis on the verge of return, the Colts suddenly had a glut of players at defensive end and needed more playmaking ability at defensive tackle.

“It’s just all about trying to have the best 11 on the field,” Reich said.

The transition was hard at first.

Hunt has always played either defensive end or the three-technique tackle position, positions where he had the space to use his quickness and length. He’d only played nose sparingly: A handful of times in Cincinnati, a handful of times at SMU.

“You’re a lot closer to the ball and to the action,” Hunt said. “If you look at it the way the NFL offensive linemen line up, the center’s on the ball, the guards and tackles are kind of off (the line of scrimmage), so there’s space to work already. When you’re at the nose, you’re right there.”

Playing in the Indianapolis system made the transition easier.

In most defenses, a nose tackle’s job is to gobble up blocks, occupying as many offensive linemen as possible so other players are free to run to the ball. The Colts ask all four of their defensive linemen to penetrate and attack.

The system is also designed for players to get up to speed quickly. Once Hunt adjusted to the suddenness of playing over the center, the rest of the transition was easy.

“Once you learn how to play all that and how to react to certain things, different blocking schemes you might get, it’s pretty simple after that,” Hunt said.

Hunt’s explosive ability allows him to blow up plays in different ways.

While a traditional tackle might engage multiple blockers right out of his stance, Hunt’s penetration ends up accomplishing the same purpose by wrecking the path of blockers moving across the formation.

“The penetration that he gets, it opens up a lot of things for me,” Autry said. “He knocks off a lot of things. Pulling guards, tight ends.”

And Hunt is still making plenty of plays of his own in opponent’s backfields.

He dropped Kenyan Drake for a 5-yard loss on a key third down in the fourth quarter against Miami, brought a Houston drive to a halt in the fourth quarter by sacking Deshaun Watson in the win over the Texans. A week ago, against Dallas, Hunt teamed with Darius Leonard to drop Ezekiel Elliott for a drive-killing 3-yard loss that set up Autry’s blocked field goal, and on the second series, Hunt’s penetration blew up an Ezekiel attempt to pick up fourth-and-1 at the Indianapolis 3-yard line.

Hunt’s move to the nose has been one of the factors driving the Colts’ surge on defense in the second half of the season. Indianapolis allowed 4.1 yards per carry in the first eight games; since Hunt’s move to the middle, the Colts are giving up just 3.6.

“When you’re that explosive, when you get off the ball faster than anybody else, it makes it kind of hard to block him,” Colts middle linebacker Anthony Walker said. “Him being in the middle of that just makes him closer to the ball, honestly.”

Hunt’s long, lean frame and history as a defensive end might be big for Indianapolis down the stretch. Unlike a lot of nose tackles, who play fewer than 50 percent of the snaps per game, Hunt is capable of playing more than 70 percent, and the news that backup nose tackle Al Woods was placed on injured reserve earlier this week means Hunt may have to handle a large part of the workload in this final push to the playoffs.